Wu Hu

The Wu Hu, also called the "Five Barbarians" (Chinese: 五胡), were a collection of five non-Han Chinese barbarian tribes that immigrated to China at the time of the Eastern Han and would go on to form "conquest dynasties" during the time of the Western Jin in the 4th century CE.

History
The Wu Hu tribes were not related in ethnic or linguistic traditions, as the Qiang were Sino-Tibetan herdsmen, the Di were Sino-Tibetan farmers, the Jie were Indo-Scythian pastoral nomads, the Xianbei were Mongols, and the Xiongnu were of unknown origins. The Wu Hu raided the Han dynasty after moving into China, but the Han defeated the Xiongnu Confederacy in battle and conquered Liang Province in northwestern China. However, in 304 CE they rose up in the "Uprising of the Five Barbarians" against Western Jin, who were torn apart by the War of the Eight Princes, a series of civil wars between princes of the Sima clan. The barbarians conquered kingdoms in northern China, beginning the Sixteen Kingdoms era as non-Han peoples began to rule over China with their "conquest dynasties" and impose their customs on the ethnic Chinese.